Visiting Fellow, Department of Computer Science,
Australian National University, Canberra

Abstract

The possibility of delivering more services from the library
across networks creates risks as well as opportunities. Outsourcing
of technical and user services can improve the delivery of services,
but risk loss of control of quality and costs. Use of networked
services creates a need for open standards based systems, to replace
current closed systems. The rise of Linux as a potential operating
system and global phenomenon is discussed. The question is asked as
to what is left for the library to do, if e-publishers deliver
e-books via e-commerce. It is argued that public and academic
libraries can help create a more diverse publishing system, by
supporting open standards and avoid a further consolidation of global
corporate publishing.

Outsourcing

"An arrangement whereby a third party provider
assumes responsibility for performing information systems functions
at a pre-determined price and according to predetermined performance
criteria." (Northfield
1992).

Outsourcing can improve the delivery of
services, but risk loss of control of quality and costs. The
Australian Computer Society commissioned a study
of IT outsourcing in 1997 (ACS
1997), which was presented in evidence to the Senate Finance and
Public Administration References Committee IT
Outsourcing inquiry (Hansard 1997)
by Ian Dennis and myself.

Preparing the study was itself an exercise in the use of IT and
contracting out. We were able to prepare a detailed "paper"
on a complex paper in a relatively short time, using people at
different locations communicating on-line. Members of the press
commented on the benefits of having the detailed final document
immediately available online, with hypertext links to background
material.

In its Senate submission the ACS recommended caution on
whole-of-Government IT Outsourcing, warning that it was a high risk
approach, for individuals, organisations and for the community as a
whole. The paper concluded that outsourcing assessment processes are
a valid tool for Government and private organisations in matching
operations to strategic needs. It could deliver cost savings and
other benefits but if used inappropriately, significantly diminish
service levels, incur major reconstruction costs, and cause social
damage. Also it may not be necessary:

Many of these advantages can accrue just from the
process of examining the outsourcing option, as a consequence of
self-examination and formalisation. That is to say that they can
accrue without outsourcing per se.(ACS
1997)

The ACS's paper was addressed to Government, but in any
organisation there is a need for processes to be open, accountable
and participatory. Decisions made behind closed doors and
communicated as a fait accompli are not in the public interest. It is
important that all those involved understand their obligations and
the risks, as well as the potential benefits.

The Outsourced Library

Given that outsourcing is a valid tool, how can it be used with IT
in a library? One way is that the Internet can be used to deliver
services. This doesn't require any new or revolutionary technology:
the technology is already here and the revolution is already
happening. However, it requires new skills for the people involved
both in the outsourcing client organisation and the outsourcing
company.

In the most extreme case the Library could be replaced with an
outsourced, remotely delivered service. The library would consist of
a bundle of web based services: the catalogue, research and
information services. E-books, journals and newspapers would be
provided online wia contracts with content owners. Services which
could not be delivered via a web interface would be available by
e-mail (such as more complex research queries) and by telephone.
There may optionally be a service for delivery of paper books and
magazines, with delivery to the clients site or at a service location
(what was previously called a "library").

It should be noted that the bundle of services which is a library
need not be provided by one organisation in one physical location,
nor need there be an actual collection of books, as in a conventional
library (books can be sourced from separate specialised sources or
printed on demand). In a way a current library is a type of
outsourcing organisation: contracting with various suppliers of goods
and services to supply an integrated service to their borrowers.

The different online services of a library could be provided by
specialist information services run from computer systems located
anywhere in the world. E-mail and telephone enquiries could be routed
to an appropriately skilled person who would service the library
requirements of any number of organisations, in a similar way to
telephone call centres. In a study
I am carrying out for an Australian local government body, I
point out that web based call centres are feasible and need not be
limited to low paid semiskilled tasks (GSDC 2000). A review
of previous literature was carried out for the study by the The
Library of the Australian
National University , with the request by
e-mail, the deliverable as a web page and payment by direct
entry. There were a couple of telephone calls and no visits to
the physical library.

In general Libraries are not in the business of handling things,
but providing access to information. This places them at the
forefront of the Internet revolution. In the first phase of this
revolution we saw the Internet used as a direct replacement for
existing technology: e-mail in place of paper mail, web publications
in place of paper publications. This technology-by-analogy approach
is coming to an end. We will now see the Internet used in ways which
have no off-line equivalent and providing insights on how to build
and run organisations.

Outsourced staffless, building-less libraries are feasible.
However, it should be noted that this only indicates that outsourcing
is made possible; if it should be carried out is a wider
public policy question. Also it is possible to outsource some or all
of the services of the physical library, particularly where these are
provided remotely (from book-stacks, by post, telephone or fax).
Equally, online libraries could still have a physical presence, with
a shop front somewhat like modern bank branch, with rows of ATMs and
perhaps one part time staff member to provide customer assistance.
While those lucky enough to have access to Australia's excellent full
service libraries may not like an ATM library it might allow a
service to be provided more widely.

The use of networked services creates a need for open standards
based systems, to replace current closed systems. If outsourced
services from on-line suppliers are to be used by a library (or to
create a library), then standards are needed. The two ways to
acquire an IT system used to be to either to build it or buy it.
Either option was a major undertaking, with years of effort needed
and the system expected to be in use for many more years. The
Internet and the web have shown another option: build the system from
standard components. The components, and the suppliers of the
components, can be changed relatively simply, quickly and frequently.
The standards used can;t be changed as often and provide the long
term stability for the service.

As an example of this process I have been consulting to a Federal
Government agency on the move of their web site to a new host. Most
of the complexity of the move is involved with the enhancements to a
few dozen pages of static content, not the actual move. The site has
most content drawn from several agencies and uses XML
based meta-data and search engines.
Exactly which agencies and what the data is has also changed.
However, this is of little concern provided the Internet standards
are used.

Librarians are used to dealing with meta-data in well defined
standard formats and well aware of the problems of adding a new
"standard" formats, so why bother with XML? It is not
certain, but it looks as if XML will be used for many applications,
making it cheaper and easier.

One example of one use
of XML is for XHTML,
which provides a more carefully formatted implementation of
HTML using the XML syntax. XHTML is designed to allow a bridge
between the existing web and new features. XHTML's stricter
definition will require some minor adjustments for web authors, such
as TAGS being in lower case (<i> for italics, not <I>).
In return for these minor inconveniences, XHTML allows extensions to
be easily added for special applications.

Another use for XML is to provide actual "books". There
are several proposed XML based formats for electronic books,
including the Open eBook Forum'sOpen eBook Publication
Structure. This attempts to be expressive enough for paper
publishing, while maintaining compatibility with web browsers. It
should also be useable with hand-held e-book devices.

It should be noted that there will be an ongoing need to cope with
multiple standards. As an example the Australian
Digital Theses Program aims to establish a distributed database
of digital versions of theses produced by the postgraduate research
students at Australian Universities. Dublin
Core metadata is automatically generated out of the deposit form
for each thesis deposited. The metadata is presented with
HTML
4.0 Meta-tags, but with the tools
used could as well be presented in It is intended to use an
e-commerce model to charging for printing/downloading of documents.

The Australian Digital Theses Program currently uses PDF
format for document storage, which has severe
limitations as an electronic document format. The Open
eBook Publication Structure. Or a similar XML based e-book
format would be more efficient and suitable for on-screen reading
that PDF. However, a widely accepted XML based format is not yet
available.

Librarians have a central role to play in ensuring future access to
digital materials. Publishers may increasingly see the content as
perishable: prepared for a mass market in whatever is the current
trendy digital format. XML has the potential to provide lasting
format, but requires research and standards work.

Librarians are in the business of organising online resources. A
collection of material, even material available free from the web
can in itself become a valuable new work. PictureAustralia,
which provides integrated access to the image collections of a
number of Australia's cultural institutions provides a preview to
the future. The National Library of
Australia hosts PictureAustralia, but the pictures can be
located at any of the cultural institutions. The creation of
standard metadata for each picture and the theme of collections of
photographs creates a valuable new resource, distinct from the
individual photographs.

Linux

The rise of Linux as a global phenomenon is is worthy of research
by sociologists and marketeers. This is not to detract from Linux's
potential as an operating system, but to point out that the way Linux
was developed and promoted may provide a new model for doing
business. Linux is essentially a free clone of the propriety Unix
operating system, built by an on-line consortium of volunteers to run
on desk-top Pcs in place of Microsoft Windows. Some of the Linux
volunteers are individuals, some are very large corporations. The
product of this labour is given away, but has become a large
business, through sales of technical support, manuals and add-on
software.

Linux is usable in large organisations, where staff to install and
support it are available. It isn't quite ready for the small business
or home user, due to being more difficult to install and configure
than Microsoft Windows of the Apple Macintosh operating system and
having a very much more limited range of end-user software packages
available.

Linux has a symbiotic relationship with the Internet, the web and
standards. It is very popular as the host for web sites and due to
its lack of one large commercial backer, relied on standards and on
the Internet for tying its elements together.

On 19 July, Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced
it will release the source code of its StarOffice (TM) Suite, to the
open source community under a GNU General Public License (GPL). Part
of this is to define a set of XML-based file formats for word
processing, spreadsheets and presentation tools. Combined with the
capabilities of XML enabled web browsers, such as the open-source
Mozilla, this provides the
possibility of low cost software generating portable file formats. A
document created in a presentation tool could then be presented using
a web browser. There would be no need to convert the file from one
proprietary format to another, or download a special viewer program,
the web browser would display the document directly. It also creates
the possibility of more flexible document formats, such as
integrating a printable text document and a slide show in the one
file, or displaying database records as a document. An ambitious
example of attempting such a system is the Mozilla.org's
proposal for an open source combined word processor and Web editor,
based on the Mozilla web browser. This software will most likely be
released for Linux before any other operating system.

Rather than going to a major vendor of mainframes for a large
computer system, it is possible to read a cookbook and build your own
with components from the local PC shop. The ANU has built a Linux
supercomputer
from PCs stacked on old library shelves. The same technology could be
used to provide very large database and web transaction processing
systems for library applications.

What is left for the library to do?

If e-publishers can deliver e-books and e-zines via e-commerce,
what is left for the library to do? While a commercial e-future is
feasible for libraries, it is not necessarily a desirable future.
Public and academic libraries have a central role in creating a more
diverse publishing system, by supporting open standards and in
helping mitigating the problems of consolidation of global corporate
publishing.

Left to their own commercial forces, companies will produce
incompatible, proprietary publishing technology. Market forces might
eventually create a de-facto standard, but the rate of technical
development may outpace this and the de-facto standard may result
from one company dominating global information distribution.

The development of Linux shows a way in which organisations and
individuals can co-operate to create technology which has a public
benefit, but which can also involve private profit.

As the network becomes the Library, there is a very real risk of
the loss of valuable information to the community. Libraries have the
central role in pioneering ways to ensure information is supplied in
a sustainable and supportable way.

Access to the Disabled: A Role for The Library

One role libraries have fulfilled is to provide access to
information for those who could otherwise not have it. One recent
example where Libraries have fulfilled this role is in providing
access to the Internet and the web for the community.

In 1994 Roger Clarke and I argued
(ACS 1994) that public libraries held the key to equity of access to
the Internet. Governments responded by making some additional finding
available to provide Internet access available to Libraries.

Another valuable role which libraries have previously played has
been in access to information by the disabled. Libraries have
traditionally provided special equipment for the reading of print
material by those with visual impairments and by special formats
such as large print, talking books and books in languages other than
English.

The Internet began with a head start for the disabled: by having
text as its basic medium text, it allowed material to be easily
transformed into formats such as large text, speech and Braille.
When graphical features were added to the web, consideration was
given to maintaining accessibility, by including alternative text
(essentially captions) for images.

This head start with accessibility has recently been eroded with
poorly trained web developers not using the web;s accessibility
features and tool developers failing to build accessibility features
into new web formats.

Graphic designers who have moved into web development may be excused
for not knowing about accessibility. However, IT professionals, who's
discipline has for many years included the human factors of interface
design, have no excuses. As the case brought
against SOCOG shows, organisations may be engaged in unlawful
conduct by providing a web site which was to a significant extent
inaccessible to the blind. When designing for the public, IT
professionals have an obligation to use the accessibility features
built into the web. IT professionals who fail to use low cost
accessibility features are acting unethically. Librarians have a role
in reminding the rest of us how to go about providing accessibility,
on a large scale and for the long term.